Xenodochial
by Unleash The Shadow
Summary: SPOILERS FOR MISPLACED. An extended ending to the episode, complete with Chalant, BruceDick father/son, and a surprise!


**So originally I wanted this to be a piece for my drabble series. But I think this is a bit too long for a drabble, and it has spoilers. It doesn't feel right sticking it in the middle of a drabble series, so I figured I should publish this separately.**

**IF YOU DID NOT WATCH "MISPLACED", SPOILERS GALORE.**

**I'm not a Chalant shipper, so excuse any mistakes I made with the pairing. I wrote them how I see them, and you'll see that at the end.**

**I do not own Young Justice.**

_Xenodochial - hospitable; kindly to strangers._

"Is this all, Zee?" Artemis asked with a small smile on her face.

Zatanna just numbly nodded, still unable to get over the shock of losing her father. "I just need some alone time, sorry guys," she whispered, throwing them a sad small smile.

With one last look around the room, Artemis and M'gann turned to leave. M'gann never experienced the loss of a parent due to the severe lack of a parental figure in her life. J'onn was the closest to a father she has, and she had thought she lost him once, but that was all fake. Artemis, on the other hand, knew to some extent how it was to lose a family member, but they left willingly. She couldn't begin to imagine what Zatanna was feeling at the moment.

Guilt?

Abandonment?

Robin was having second thoughts. He knew that out of all the team, he could relate to her at the moment the best. He couldn't help but remember just how much he leaned on Alfred and Bruce for support back during those days. Seeing her like this – small, heartbroken… _lost _was heartbreaking for him. If asked, he would deny all feelings related to Zatara's daughter. But seeing her so broken stirred something within him. He wanted to comfort her, tell her that they'll find a way to save her father, reveal to her that he knew what she was going through.

"_You are not to reveal your identity to the team. You do not necessarily have to be in uniform all the time around them, but your identity must remain a secret."_

He gritted his teeth. Batman's orders were clear, he couldn't reveal his identity to anyone. But he already broke it once with Wally, what is the hurt in doing it for Zatanna?

_You hardly know her,_ his reasonable side sneered. _You're letting emotions dictate your actions, exactly the opposite of what he trained you to do._

Dick couldn't deny the truth behind those words. He turned to leave the room, pausing in the doorway to take one last look at her hidden face. Hating himself with every step, he left the room entirely and walked away without looking away.

To her, after all, they were strangers - strangers who felt pity toward her and offered her a home. He remembered Bruce giving his word that he would take care of her before Giovanni donned the Helmet of Fate.

He cursed himself for not being with the team both times someone had worn the helmet. If he was there when they first acquired it, he would have made them see reason to give the helmet to the League. At least with the League, no one would have the temptation to wear it every single time something goes wrong.

However, if he was mad with himself from not stopping Kaldur during that fight with the Injustice League, he was furious with himself now. She had worn it almost right beside him. What was he doing when she was making the choice? Passed out cold from a stray spell because he wasn't fast enough – strong enough – to dodge it. He could have yelled at her to rethink that, tell her that they would find another way to win this fight without the Helmet's help.

Since when were they so dependent on that Helmet?

Jarring him out of his thoughts was the pneumatic hissing of the gym doors. He detachedly glanced at his training equipment underneath the ceiling. Batman had installed it shortly after the formation of the team, and it was an exact replica of his training equipment back in the manor. He rarely used it due to the limitations of the moves he could do in front of the team without raising suspicion, and keeping the glasses on was a pain.

Looking around the room, he saw one of his discarded masks. He couldn't remember what exactly happened that led to the mask being there, but it must have been recent. The spirit gum that he put on the edges was still usable.

The times he did use this apparatus, the entire team would gather quietly at the doorway and watch him. When he would finish, they would disperse quickly, thinking that he doesn't know that they watch him. But Robin knows. And now, he doesn't really care.

Turning his back to the camera, Dick took off his sun glasses and replaced them with the mask. Shrugging out of his jacket, he chalked his hands up and climbed the ladder.

It was hard. He started with a few warm up moves to get the blood flowing and to readjust his body to flying. And it was hard. Doing these exercises was never hard, but now it was. It must be the guilt that weighed him down.

Robin couldn't help but think that if he had dodged the spell, none of this would have happened. This was all his fault. If only he faster, if only he could predict strategy as well as Batman could, if only—

He lost his grip on the trapeze bar and fell into the net that was beneath.

"Robin," he heard his name called.

Positioning himself on the net so he could see who his visitor was, he wasn't surprised to find Batman. His mentor was giving him that look, the look that said "I know what's happening, it wasn't your fault". At the moment, Dick couldn't believe that look.

"Batman," he replied almost as emotionlessly as the Dark Knight. To both of them, however, they could hear the feelings conveyed in that word. _I missed you, I thought I lost you, Not again, not ever. Don't leave me._

"It's been half an hour."

Batman did not need to elaborate on the sentence for Richard to get the message. Shooting his mentor an unbelieving look, he ran out of the gym and toward Zatanna's room.

Pausing at the door, he rethought his actions.

Why was it that when he thought of comforting Zatanna after the loss of her father, Barbara's possible reaction at losing her father came to his mind?

**I can't see Chalant working out, and DickBabs is my OTP so I had to throw the last part in. First I thought that I should write about the missing BatHug from the episode, but I guess my inner DickBabs fangirl had to be sated.**

**Leave a review :D**


End file.
